9 Jul 2026
Two scientists on opposite sides of the world turned out to be studying the same evolutionary gamechanger. Their discovery — a new organelle called the Nitroplast — would end up rewriting an important rule of biology, and could help pave the way for plants that could make their own fertilizer.
Video by: Jesse Nichols
Executive Editors: Teresa Chin and Jess Stahl
Special thanks to: Naotomo Umewaka, Mayu Katafuchi, Sachi Mulkey, Clayton Aldern, and Emily Zhang.
Sources:
Jon Zehr
Kyoko Hagino
Tyler Coale
Ramon Massana
Luis Rubio
Solène Moulin
Coale et al. 2024
“Nitrogen-fixing organelle in a marine alga”
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s…
Cornejo-Castillo et al. 2024
“Metabolic trade-offs constrain the cell size ratio in a nitrogen-fixing symbiosis”
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0…
Harding et al. 2018
“Symbiotic unicellular cyanobacteria fix nitrogen in the Arctic Ocean”
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas…
Hagino et al. 2013
“Discovery of an Endosymbiotic Nitrogen-Fixing Cyanobacterium UCYN-A in Braarudosphaera bigelowii”
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art…
Thompson et al. 2012
“Unicellular Cyanobacterium Symbiotic with a Single-Celled Eukaryotic Alga”
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s…
Moisander et al. 2010
“Unicellular cyanobacterial distributions broaden the oceanic N2 fixation domain”
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s…
Zehr et al. 2001
“Unicellular cyanobacteria fix N2 in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean”
https://www.nature.com/articles/35088063
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